David Vine | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/profile/david-vine
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Italy: home of pizza, pasta, wine and the US military | David Vinehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/03/us-military-base-expansion-italy
Italy is becoming a launching pad for US wars. Americans should question if we need bases in Italy and worldwide<p>Most tourists think of Italy as the land of Renaissance art, Roman antiquities, and of course great pizza, pasta, and wine. Few think of it as a land of US military bases, but the Pentagon has spent the last two decades plowing hundreds of millions of tax dollars into bases in Italy, turning the country into an increasingly important center for US military power. </p><p>Since the start of the global war on terror in 2001, the military has been shifting its European center of gravity south from Germany, where the overwhelming majority of US forces in the region have been stationed since the end of the second world war. In the process, the Pentagon has turned the Italian peninsula into a launching pad for future wars in Africa, the Middle East, and beyond.</p><p>I'm sorry, Italy, but this is not the cold war. They're not here to defend Vicenza from a [Soviet] attack. They're here because we agreed they need to be here to do other things, whether that's the Middle East or the Balkans or Africa.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/03/us-military-base-expansion-italy">Continue reading...</a>US militaryUS newsWorld newsUS foreign policyUS SenateUS CongressEuropeThu, 03 Oct 2013 16:45:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/03/us-military-base-expansion-italyPhotograph: Hitoshi Maeshiro/EPAA US Senate subcommittee recommended moving special operations forces and V-22 Ospreys to Sicily. Photograph: Hitoshi Maeshiro/EPAPhotograph: Hitoshi Maeshiro/EPAA US Senate subcommittee recommended moving special operations forces and V-22 Ospreys to Sicily. Photograph: Hitoshi Maeshiro/EPADavid Vine for TomDispatch, part of the Guardian Comment Network2013-10-03T16:45:00ZBritain's own Guantánamo | David Vinehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jul/28/diego-garcia-cia-rendition-torture
Ministers must end the cover-ups over Diego Garcia's role as a centre of CIA rendition and torture<p>Piece by piece, the truth is finally coming out about Britain's own Guantánamo Bay – Diego Garcia. Today the human rights lawyers group Reprieve began a legal case on behalf of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Saad_Iqbal" title="Saad Iqbal Madni">Saad Iqbal Madni</a>, who they say was transited through the UK-controlled Indian Ocean island as part of the CIA's secret rendition programme.</p><p>Madni, whom Reprieve says was tortured in Egypt, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay after his stopover in Diego Garcia, has been released in Pakistan where – according to Clive Stafford Smith, the Reprieve director – he is "effectively crippled by his torture".</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jul/28/diego-garcia-cia-rendition-torture">Continue reading...</a>RenditionCIAWorld newsUK newsTortureAl-QaidaLawTue, 28 Jul 2009 18:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jul/28/diego-garcia-cia-rendition-tortureDavid Vine2009-07-28T18:30:00Z